High prices take sheen off gold sales on Dhanteras

TIL Desk/Business/New Delhi/ Gold and jewellery sales in the morning trade remained subdued this Dhanteras Monday owing to sluggish demand from consumers amid high prices, according to industry players. However, organised players like P C Jewellers are expecting better sales later during the day as quality and better designs at competitive prices are likely to attract more footfalls.

Unorganised jewellery players in India — the world’s second biggest buyer of the precious metal — make up for roughly 70 per cent of the country’s gold sales. Dhanteras is considered to be an auspicious day for buying gold, silver and other valuables and is largely celebrated in northern and western parts of India.

“Footfalls are good but sales are moderate so far. Till few days back, we were thinking gold demand on the day of Dhanteras would be down 10-15 per cent, but looking at the pre-booking and footfalls, there should be least 5-7 per cent jump in sales today,” All India Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation Chairman Nitin Khandelwal told.

Both gold and silver are being purchased. Most buyers are restricting their purchase to tokens as gold prices are ruling high over Rs 32,000 per ten grams, he said. Gold prices are ruling at Rs 32,690 per 10 grams today in the national capital as against Rs 30,710 per 10 grams on the Dhanteras day in 2017.